MauriceRavel.com is a tribute to,
Maurice
Ravel. His father's background was Swiss and
his mother's Basque, but he was brought up in Paris, where he
studied at the Conservatoire, 1889-95, returning in 1897 for further
study with FaurÈ and GÈdalge. In 1893 he met Chabrier
and Satie, both of whom were influential. A decade later he was
an established composer, at least of songs and piano pieces, working
with luminous precision in a style that could imitate Lisztian
bravura (Jeux d'eau) or Renaissance calm (Pavane pour une infante
dÈfunte); there was also the String Quartet, somewhat in
the modal style of Debussy's but more ornately instrumented. However,
he five times failed to win the Prix de Rome (1900-05) and left
the Conservatoire to continue his life as a freelance musician.

During the next decade, that of his 30s, he was at his most productive.
There was a rivalry with Debussy and some dispute about priority
in musical discoveries, but Ravel's taste for sharply defined
ideas and closed formal units was entirely his own, as was the
grand virtuosity of much of his piano music from this period,
notably the cycles Miroirs and Gaspard de la nuit. [Read
more...]

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